Thursday, June 22, 2006

A cheap and simple way to help cool a laptop: use bakeware. My cooling rack, made by Ekco, cost $3.99 at an outlet store. With this rack and a tiny desk fan, my laptop runs 8 to 10 degrees cooler than it used to. (I use HDD Thermometer, freeware, to monitor the hard-drive temperature.)

Formulaic disclaimer: Placing a computer on a piece of bakeware might lead to scratches or other damage, so be careful.

I must point out for former students that Ekco gets its name from the Greek oikos, meaning household, home.

[Oops: As I just learned while browsing, Ekco was founded by Edward Katzinger, whose initials gave the company its name. Still, I'd like to think that EK or someone close by was aware of oikos, the source for the English prefix eco-.]

[Update, June 26, 2006: This post has received roughly 4500 visits in the past four days (I'm amazed). Thanks to lifehack.org and Lifehacker for linking to it. And thanks to the commenters who've added other useful tips for cooling laptops.]

comments: 17

Cooling for free. This solution was tested in Iraq. Take 4 water bottle caps and place on work surface. Place laptop on bottle caps, the 3/4" of airspace will allow the air circulation to keep the laptop cool. -Chris D

I take two masterlocks (not the dial knobbed school stle ones) that has a blue or black rubbing coating (for weather proofing which doesn't matter for this) and I just put it in the rear corners of the laptop. It raises the keyboard up and at the same time cools down the laptop.

i use 2 old comp fans on a variable voltage dc convertor [this way i can adjust fan speed]1 blowing in the vent at back and 1 sucking out the side where the built in fan is my laptop never gets hot whereas just with the inbuilt fan it always felt hot

Great ideas! I've used 4 small self-adhesive square bumpers - 1 on each corner of my 20" Acer laptop. The result is reduction in average running temperature from 102F to 75F. Cost of bumpers was less than $2.

hey just something i started today. i got about 7 20 cent coins (im australian) and taped them together, then just put the under the upper corner of the notebook, so 7 for each corner. it cooled my laptop by about 5 degrees celsius for a price of $2.80. and i can even refund it! haha

“Orange Crate Art” is a song by Van Dyke Parks and the title of a 1995 album by Van Dyke Parks and Brian Wilson. “Orange Crate Art” is for me one of the great American songs: “Orange crate art was a place to start.”

Don’t look for premiums orcoupons, as the cost ofthe thoughts blended inORANGE CRATE ART pro-hibits the use of them.